“It’s Better to Take the War to Them”

“It’s Better to Take the War to Them”

“It’s better to take the war to them.” That’s what the Army recruiter said in the sauna at the Y the other day.

I’m re-reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (why did I wait so long?). Huck and Jim, the run-away slave, are rafting down the Mississippi River by night, avoiding notice. They take turns on watch. Huck writes:

I went to sleep, and Jim didn’t call me when it was my turn. He often done that. When I waked up, just at day-break, he was setting there with his hands down betwixt his knees, moaning and mourning to himself. I didn’t take notice, nor let on. I knowed what it was about. He was thinking about his wife and his children, away up yonder, and he was low and homesick; because he hadn’t every been away from home before in his life; and I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks does for their’n. It don’t seem natural, but I reckon it’s so. (Chapter XIII)

I wonder if it’s easier to take war to them because we can’t imagine they love their children as much as we love ours. Or we don’t want to think about it.

David Tryggestad

February 6, 2014